Calgon, Take Me Away!

My youngest is in baseball (his first year) and my youngest daughter is in softball (her first year) but before we signed her up for softball, we signed up for a soccer league — just six Saturdays, no practices, 4 on 4. Great practice for passing, dribbling, and scoring (in much smaller goals, no goalie) … but it started THIS weekend. The same weekend as a two-day softball tournament. Not to mention that my middle schooler is going on a week-long spiritual retreat with the entire middle school (which I had to buy stuff and help him pack for), and my high schooler Kelly is in the school musical as one of the leads … the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz. (And my other daughter is a munchkin!) Kelly also has two AP tests coming up in early May and then finals … Add to that my oldest, a college student, has finals and sent me her essay Sunday night to proofread before she turns it in.

This would be overwhelming even if I didn’t have a tight deadline. But, yes, I have a deadline. Nine days to finish COLD SNAP, book 7 of the Lucy Kincaid series.

But this is par for the course in the Brennan house, just not usually all at once. Husband did three of the four softball games this weekend, plus baseball pictures. But he really earned his keep these last two weeks by building the 10-foot OZ head for the musical. Kelly designed it, and he cut out the thick insulating Styrofoam. Then, Kelly painted it with air brushes — a medium she hasn’t worked with before. Between the two of them (and a lot of late nights) they created an amazing prop for the show, which will have smoke coming from the eyes and mouth and be held on stage by six dancers. Whew!

Isn’t it amazing? Yeah, I’m bragging, but I’m proud of both of them. Kelly also had one of her pieces of art selected to be shown at the California State Fair. They juried nearly 2,000 pieces from high school students around the state, but only 500 will be shown and judged. So if you go to the State Fair this summer, you’ll have to definitely check out the art exhibits! (I always do because the buildings are air conditioned, and the State Fair always seems to fall during the hottest weeks of the summer …)

But it’s times like these where I begin to panic. It’s as if everything is happening at once … yet, by the time I turn in my book, play rehearsals will be over and they’ll have opening night; my oldest will be home from college; and it’ll start the last week of both softball and baseball. (But I won’t get much reprieve because after opening weekend, I’ll be receiving copyedits for the first Maxine Revere book!)

There are a couple things I do to help when I’m pulled in a million different directions at once. One is having a margarita 🙂 Or playing a video game. Video games are rather mindless and I can veg for 20 or 30 minutes and not think … But my favorite is taking a bath. A bubble bath is one of my favorite solitary activities which, when I had kids, I had to cut back on. It’s very hard being a mom and expecting privacy for two minutes sitting on the toilet, let alone an hour in the bath!

When I do indulge, I have candles, wine, cheese and crackers, and a book. Always a book. In fact, my favorite place to read is in a hot bath!

Allison Brennan is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of nearly three dozen romantic thrillers and mysteries, including the Lucy Kincaid series and the Max Revere series. She lives in Northern California with her husband, five children, and assorted pets.

27 comments on “Calgon, Take Me Away!”

We’re very lucky that my kids don’t care for sports. They tried everything when they were younger, but nothing “stuck.” So far there has been very little activity after school. I’m glad. The middle daughter doesn’t get home from school until 4PM. She often has hours of daily homework.

I like a good book to help me escape. My husband’s vice is video games or movies. We snuck away this weekend to see Oblivion with Tom Cruise when I started having some deadline anxiety. Odd how when I feel I have no time to finish anything, I spend my time doing nothing!

Oblivion had definite pacing issues and some major clichés. I’d wait for the DVD.

Thanks for the heads up about the movie, it was on my maybe list because it’s something my son would like.

I know what you mean … when I get overwhelmed I procrastinate! It’s awful! But I wrote a lot this weekend and feel like I’m back in the groove, and though I’m behind where I want to be, I *think* I’ll get this done by May 1.

I like sports because learning to work with a team is a great skill. My youngest doesn’t really care for sports, I make him play — not over-the-top, he’s still young, but I told him he needs to find his sport. He did two years of football and was the smallest kid on the team. He seems to like baseball a lot more, and has greatly improved from knowing nothing to actually understanding the game. My older son only does football (four years so far) and while he doesn’t have the greatest skill at it, he understands the game and strategy as well or better than his coaches! He’s the kid who memorizes all the plays and knows where everyone is supposed to be on the field and what they’re supposed to do, LOL. My 10 year old daughter is truly the most athletic (or tied with my oldest, who played volleyball for 6 years and basketball for 2 and now plays recreational lacrosse and is a cross fit nut) … anything with a ball, Mary loves. Soccer, volleyball, softball, basketball.

I remember those days! My daughter was a figure skater (20 hours a week) and my son was in everything else. Crazysauce. Now that they are older and I have time to write I miss the running around. Go figure. And the prop is fantastic!

Allison, I feel you pain to some extent, but only with three kids. I truly can’t imagine adding a couple more to the mix!! Best of luck to them with the many and varied activities–and your deadline! Can’t wait until summer…

You know, I realized that once you get over two kids, you might as well have five or ten! LOL — with two, you can split them between parents if necessary, and it’s easier to pawn one kid off on friends or family if you have to do something with the other kid, but with five? You just give up and go with the flow 🙂

Wow sounds like a full and busy weekend but fun at the same time. I don’t have children so there is no pressure there for me. 🙁 I just work a ton of hours and try to have a life.
But when my case load is really high or overly stressful, I try to just get outside and sit in the sun for 15 minutes or so, and listen to some music. I gave up taking bubble baths when I had a number of cats that would get in the water with me.. yes it was weird, but they were all hand raised so had no fear of water.

I started taking a nightly bath after a particularly cold Little League season. After the night games, once which ended up being snowed out, I needed to warm up.

I usually have homemade bath salts (epson salt and lavender oil) and a book. I need the get away from it all time, and I only have two kids and one dog. And a good husband. Who deals with the kids and the dog while I’m relaxing.

We are headed into the last month of school, along with two baseball teams and my oldest has football workouts before school and spring football is starting, and there are band concerts and this summer is going to be full of football camps and band camp for both boys this year. Oh and the youngest has film class afterschool and a baseball game and…

But I know it will be over all too soon. Someday the only baseball games I’ll go to will be pro, and in April or May. The only concerts will be for bands I hear on the radio. Until my kids get married and have kids of their own, and then hopefully I’ll be able to help them shuttle the kids to their games.

Your life sounds like my life! And I do love going to their games, I love the other kids, I enjoy seeing them have fun and compete. The skills they’re learning are going to help them for life. And someday, I’ll have grandkids, who I can spoil and send back to their parents 🙂

First, your husband and daughter did a fantastic job on the OZ prop! I can’t draw stick figures, so I’m totally in awe of their talent.

Second, I’m a busy gal, but I was exhausted reading your post.

On those days where things begin to close in on me, I’ll grab one or more of the dogs and tell them my troubles. They’re excellent listeners and I know they won’t tell anyone. There’s the added bonus of doggie kisses.

Dogs are the world’s greatest psychiatrists! Whenever one of the kids is upset, particularly the two youngest, our 90 pound lab will curl up with them, half on-top of them, and just lay there as if it upsets him that they’re upset.

That’s a lot of sports in one weekend! I used to go for the individual competitive sports when I was in school–track, swimming (back when I lived in Asia and being my height wasn’t a huge disadvantage, haha), badminton, table tennis… I’d pretty much play anything– but I’ve done some team sports as well. Including netball. No, it doesn’t get any more British/ Commonwealth than that :P. My siblings didn’t play many sports and my meets were generally on weekdays, so it made things easy– especially since I hated having my parents watch me compete so I usually got myself there and back.

I generally go for an extra-long workout to unwind, and pick up a book (or occasionally a videogame– my poor PS3 feels rather neglected). Or when I get really, really restless, I get on a bus/plane/train and go away for a bit. I once got on two overnight buses to spend 9 hours in DC and watch a football [soccer] match, got off at the station here at 6:00 and walked straight to lab. Good times. Between the stress of finishing up my dissertation, putting together a paper before I leave, and figuring out the next step in my life, I’m presently trying to talk myself out of hopping on a plane to Puerto Rico and refusing to come back :).

Wow! I can’t just disappear for a few days, though sometimes I would really, really love to … My artist daughter is a runner and prefers the individual sports, like cross country. She’s the only one who doesn’t really like team sports, and while she is an AMAZING artist, her coordination isn’t all that great in sports! (shh!)

I, too, love the bath. I don’t even borrow books because, as I tell those who keep trying to loan them to me, if it’s a good book, it will likely get a little wet. When I bought my e-reader I asked the store clerk about water, just in case. He was confused by the question. While I am hoping it will never become submerged, a few drops here and there just clean it up a bit 😉

I don’t take my iPad near the water … in all my years of reading in the bath (I started when I was very young, like 8, because my mom read in the bath!) I’ve only dropped ONE book. A few got drops on them, but only one did I toss (when I was done reading — the pages DO eventually dry!)

I used to love bubble baths when we had a claw-footed tub that was HUGE! The tub we have now is only about 8 inches deep. Soaker tub? Srsly?!? I now indulge in really hot showers, running through the entire hot water tank. I often get my best inspiration when I’m stuck on a WIP.

Oz is made of awesome! Congrats to Kelly and hubby. Tell her to “break a leg” when the time comes. I don’t know how parents of multiples do it. We only had one and she had me running like that proverbial chicken. Of course, her softball season started in August with school ball, transitioned to winter training for spring travel team ball and then culminated in June or July with a national tournament. From the time she was 12. At least she had a college scholarship from it! 😀

Hang in there. You always manage to get it together and do what needs to be done. I need to figure out how to eat crackers and drink wine in the shower… 😆

That OZ mask is sooo freakin cool!! Good job to your daughter and husband! My favorite way to escape is by sitting down with a book. Reading helps make everything better. Margaritas are a good way as well. The more I learn about you Allison the more I think we are related! 😉

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Bio:

Allison Brennan

Allison Brennan is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of nearly three dozen romantic thrillers and mysteries, including the Lucy Kincaid series and the Max Revere series. She lives in Northern California with her husband, five children, and assorted pets.